The Future of Energy – striving for sustainability
At Hemlow, as part of our core work and supporting activities we ensure that we are continually focusing on and developing our sustainability goals, placing them at the heart of the everything we do. It is important to us that we continue to reduce our environmental impact and carbon footprint as much as possible in line with our core values.
Our Actions
As a company we are taking many actions to ensure we are always working towards achieving these goals. Whether that’s actions we have taken to change processes in our offices or amendments we have made to the way our employees travel across the country.
These include developing processes to negate the need for printing in our offices and reducing our paper usage through completing the transition to smart tablets across all our field engineers.
More recently, our Customer Service Manager Bogdan has been the driving force behind further implementations in our Slough office to help us become more sustainable. Following a review of our current practices we have now made the switch to fully recyclable, zero plastic packaging. Combining this with consolidating our posting activity has meant that we have been able to reduce our waste creation as well as our emissions impact by reducing the number of journeys required.
This consolidation of journeys is also reflected in the travel taken by our field employees when visiting sites. By pre-planning their work schedule, we are able to consider the locations they are visiting to help minimise travel and utilise their time efficiently.
“Environmentalism and my own individual impact on the planet is something of great importance to me and something I am passionate about, so it is great to work for a company where I am able to continue that work.”
In addition to this we have also introduced a water filter system to discourage the need for our staff to buy plastic bottled water. Many of our employees have also commented on how they feel this change has also led to them drinking more water throughout the working day, promoting a healthy lifestyle change.
Next Steps
Although we have already taken steps towards reducing our impact on the planet, there is always more to be done and that we can improve on. Our hope for the future is to replace our existing fleet used by our engineers, with electric and hybrid vehicles.
Our ongoing aim is to proactively review our maintenance base and identify energy saving initiatives for our clients and the wider Hemlow business.
Our commitment to the industry
As well as taking actions within our own offices and within the organisation we are committed to helping our clients meet their sustainability goals. Our carbon reduction database allows us to provide our clients with concise reports to assist with this, including information regarding main M&E plant that may need replacing due to age, condition or energy saving potential. This provides our clients with the opportunity to plan for CAPEX upgrades with sustainability in mind.
In addition to this we also aim to provide awareness to our stakeholders and peers in the industry about actions we can all be taking together to achieve carbon neutral goals, through our free industry leading CPD accredited courses.
Our upcoming training event ‘The Future of Energy’ will look at actions you can take to help meet your carbon reduction goals, the importance of life cycle planning and what to expect in upcoming government guidance. Taking place at venues in Manchester, Birmingham and London, find out more and reserve your free place.
